The air strike, near the village of Hyderabad, came after fighting between Taliban and Afghan soldiers supported by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. The video showed shrapnel-riddled tractors and mangled cars and homes that looked like piles of crushed crackers.
Such bombings and the allegations of civilian deaths, exaggerated or not, are the biggest challenge facing foreign forces trying to prop up Afghanistan's government. More than any suicide bombing or insurgent offensive, this issue has the potential to undermine foreign troops and hurt the NATO mission in Afghanistan, Western diplomats and Afghan officials say.
In interview after interview, ordinary Afghans say they increasingly distrust NATO's motives and increasingly blame their government for failing to stem civilian deaths.
A recent United Nations report said 593 Afghan civilians have been killed by violence linked to insurgents this year. But more of those deaths -- 314 -- were caused by international or Afghan security forces than by insurgents, who caused 279 deaths. The number does not include Saturday's reports and the civilians who may have died in the Hyderabad fighting.
Stumble It!
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Expect little from life and get more from it.